TA-DA!!!

I just walked upstairs to my (soon to be ex-) office after finishing the final day of Mark Needs A Chick mixing, (www.markneedsachick.com). Steve Christensen and I mixed together, and the results are awesome. Steve has been developing some really unique drum mixing techniques, and we pulled out all the stops this time. The results were very big--very creamy drums. Lots of Pultec EQ's and 1176's. The bass, guitars, and vocals, all were easy to fit into the presentation. Because all the sounds were recorded and played well, we had plenty of time to try out creative stuff.

One of the more radical things we did was to mix without any buss compression, (at all!!!). If I wasn't pretty confident we could pull it off, I would have never agreed, but Steve's recent work has proven that we could have incredible dynamics control without having to 'master while we mix'. This creates a mix with an incredibly 'open' sound while still being very loud. The discriminating mastering engineer can limit to his heart's content without any elements 'squeezing up or down' too much. When this record drops, I bet we are going to be doing a LOT more of the regional rock bands in the area.

Over the two days, there were times when the family and friend presence in the control room outnumbered the 'talent' by a factor of 4. The vibe was great, however, and the people just added to the mix instead of de-focusing us. (Sort of a rap posse, but positive). One of the most excited visitors was my daughter Joe Ann, (and my mother-in-law, Joe Ann Golden). Joe Ann thinks Mark Ellis is 'hot'. Her thirteen year old super-vibe made the session for me. Mark was a super rock-star role model, (he tried to talk Joe Ann out of getting pierced or tatooed--thanks, Mark).

On other notes, I am engineering for my friend Adam Berry Saturday and Sunday. I'm listening to his new band as I write, and his stuff is getting much more 'cerebral' compaired the the early Jango Rhythm songs. By the sound of the demo, someone in his band has some recording skills, so this gig should be a lot of fun. It is one of the rare times when I get to come in an just engineer and let someone else produce the session. (Thanks, Adam).

Next week, Steve and I start tracking Pale. If you have read my posts about their rehearsals, you know that this is going to be a majic session.

Time to go regenerate for tomorrow.

thebigtiredbuthappylove,
Dan

And in the end......


Mark completed his vocals yesterday for the latest batch of Mark Needs A Chick songs, and it went great. I know that Mark always leaves vocal sessions wishing he did better, but he did great,.....better than ever before. Most important, he followed my advice about taking care of his body and his voice, so he was able to sing a LOT longer than he had in the past. A friend of Mark's, Jeff Weathers, from the band, Ethan Durelle, (www.ethandurelle.com), came by to sing, (are you ready) DEATH METAL VOCALS,....well, death metal-ISH sounding vocals,....sort of. He was very aggresive sounding at the mic, but he was pretty cool to hang out with for the rest of the session.

Back to Mark. We ended the day with a big love fest including all band members, Jeff W., and Mark's super-cool parents, Jim and Sandra Ellis.

The end of the vocal session was not the end of my day, however. I picked up Steve Christensen, and we headed north of Houston to the Woodlands to rehearse Pale. We are slated to track their songs next week. I had already done a rehearsal with them, but this was the first time Steve, who is going to engineer the sessions, had heard the songs. THEY WERE KILLERS!!! We came up with some really crazy ideas about using our 5000 foot warehouse as a reverb chamber while we track. Undoubtedly, if it comes off well, then you will read all about it here.

In other production news, Sarah Sharp is in town doing preproduction with Kevin Ryan this afternoon. I can't wait to find out how that turns out. Finally, I got the budget approved to proceed with Courtney Visser's project. I am very keen to start the process on that one.

It's really my day off, so I'm out of here.

the love, none the less,

Dan

It seems like an eternity since I last posted, but it's only been 48 hours. MNAC tracking is complete except for vocals, and the guys have done very well. First off, Josh's drums sounded incredible, and his playing set a new personal best for him, (remember that last rehearsal, Josh?). As I mentioned before, Andrew's bass playing was sublime. He has the 'studio tone' for rock bass playing down pat because, (are you bassists paying attention), HE DOESN'T PLAY TOO HARD. He has tone, and no buzz, and (are you still paying attention?) is NOT AFRAID OF HEARING THE HIGH OVERTONES IN THE INSTRUMENT. I'll let the final mix speak for itself for any unbelievers.

Mark worked super hard on the guitar parts and we actually did final arrangements in the studio. Our job was made easier by Giancarlo Cafearena's Matchless Starliner amp. Mark got an EMG 81 pickup for his Les Paul, and the combination was big, creamy, and well articulated.

The vocals sitll need some work, but we found the mic/pre/compressor combination that we like, so the work should proceed nicely on Tuesday.

On other fronts, Kevin Ryan and I are starting work on pre production for Sarah Sharp's next record. I am very excited to have Kevin on board to help arrange and write. We are also slated to turn in a production agreement for Courtney Powers to do three songs.

Finally, Kevin Brandt emailed me and gave me his pedigree to chew on. Kevin one of Nashville's 'Made Men' who lives in the Texas Hill Country writing and producing top shelf country music. Donnie Vondra put me in touch with him, and I can't wait to meet him in person. He seems like 'one of the good guys' in the business--a group that I pay the closest attention to.

I'm off to enjoy the Memorial Day weekend! Lake Conroe beckons!

thebiglove,
Dan

A Great Day!!!

Started tracking 5 songs for Mark Needs A Chick and it went very well. Steve Christensen brought a whole new bag of drum tracking tricks to the session, and with Robbie Parrish tuning, we were able to get a HUGE drum sound. Josh Reina played the kit with a new level of accuracy and intensity, while bassist Andrew got the MVP award for laying down some plush studio bass parts.

I am super tired, so more will be revealed later.

thelove,
Dan

Today I recorded some amazing Hindu religious meditational hymns (?) sung in Sanskrit. The artist is Rucha Scheth from India. The tracks were cut in Bombay last month. The bonsari flute (bamboo), and sitar, were unmistakable as the REAL schiznit, played by the REAL cats in India. One piece was a 28 minute, 08 second song which in which the singers sing the 1006 names of Shiva. I was really amazed.

Tomorrow it's off to Austin to brainstorm & perhaps songwrite with Sarah Sharp, Buffalo Speedway (her guitarist), and Kevin Ryan. Kevin and I plan to work on Courtney Power's stuff on the way up, and listen to all of the Aimee Mann tracks that we have been talking about.

The scene around SugarHill today was pathetic as all of the engineers and interns limped around in a totally dazed mode after yesterdays' paintball fun.

I'm going to break with the tradition of this Studio Log, and report on
activities that are really adjacent to the recording experience.
Specifically, dear readers, I am referring to the fact that many of the
employees and interns who work at SugarHill Studios followed Operations
Manager, Jason McKee into battle---WE PLAYED PAINTBALL!!!!

For those of you who have not 'paintballed', it is played like capture the
flag, except that each contestant is armed with a paintball rifle that fires
plastic balls filled with paint, (hence the name 'paintball'). These rifles
are powered by CO2, and are accurate up to about 30 yards. Yes, they can
bruise mightily when they hit you!

Anyway, once about every couple of months, the SugarHill Gang has a company
outing to get us away from our primary addiction, (making records). This
month, our esteemed Chief Engineer, Andy Bradley offered to host us at his
crib and feed us barbeque. Jason recognized this as a fine thing, and
immediately upped the ante. "Let's go play paintball" said Jason at our
Monday staffing. We all looked at Jason like he was suggesting that we
plant pumpkins to sell in the fall on the studio property, (true--I swear
it), and he went on to explain that it would be good for all of us to do.

Now, I was ready to blow him off, or shut him down for being off topic, when
both Steve Christensen, and Tim Wehrle, said, "Hell yeah, let play
paintball". So this morning, after being up way too late last night, I drove
to meet Tim, Steve, John, Griffin, Jason, and Tim's brother, Trevor, and
Steve's fianc�, Erin, along with our intrepid interns, Frank, Ske-Teeve, and
Iris. Many of the details of our battles cannot be revealed due to fear of
embarrassment, but we emerged, tired, bruised, dehydrated, stinky and
super-happy. Big moments included, Steve C. and Erin's personal grudge
match--I believe they both shot each other in the head, but don't return
those engagement presents yet,...they came to the party with no apparent ill
feelings afterward.

My big personal boo boo, was when I mistook my own team member, John
Griffin, for an enemy soldier, and promptly shot him up real good from
behind. It was only when he yelled, "I'm hit!� and I heard his voice, that
I realized my screw up. John was smarting, and kneeling down for cover, so
I ran over to him, and he started to warn me about the guy that just shot
him. I had to admit it was me. He handled it pretty good. Then again, I
sign his paycheck.

Finally, the funniest moment of the whole day came in the last game when
some new players joined us. Now, I'm not sure how this happened, but the
other team got a guy that had about a thousand dollar-stainless steel sniper
rifle. Our team got a guy in a motorized wheelchair-----I shit you not. So
anyway, before I have a chance to really work up a resentment over the new
team memeber assignments, we're off and running. This was the last game,
and we were shooting like Lee Harvey Oswald in Dealy Plaza, and NOBODY is
able to get anywhere near raising the victory flag. It looked like the big
scene in Platoon, where Charley Sheen calls in an air strike on his own
position---The Vietcong have gotten past the wire, and the bullets are
flying!!!

Jason is yelling for help, and Steve, John Griffin and myself are not
exactly there for him because we were constantly having to tag up at the
back of the field after getting shot. After one of my more humiliating
'deaths', I am walking in a cavalier manner right back up to the front, when
I see that wheelchair guy has motored over to help Jason out. While I'm
watching, so help me, he shoots Jason (his team member!), in the foot.
Three times!! This final game was terminated early because Trevor tried to
shoot the ref. Whew!!!! Damn, that's some real fun! The rest of the day at
Andy's was filled with great food, great fellowship, and lots of
reenactments of the glories of war.

thelove,
Dan

Ok, here goes. I've had some computer problems which have kept me from posting, (Sorry Mike!). Hopefully this will make the trip.

Thursday night, The Southern Backtones finished tracking "Talk to Me" (1958!!) for the SugarHill Tribute CD. We started with a great track, and just added some extra 'events' -- harmony vocals, mandolin (which will be HEAVILY effected w/ Leslie and Echo), and wah wah ACOUSTIC guitar. It was Hank's job all they way, and we really kept him moving fast. Hank would come into the control room saying, "OK, that sucked,...I know I can do it better." To which I would reply, "No, no, no,...that was great and you just don't know it". Talk about role reversal!!!!!!! Me talking the artist into 'that's good enough'. Go figure.

When we listened to the playback at the end of the night, I was sure that we had all we needed and more. We are all of the opinion that we will 'mix with the mute button' to solidify the arrangement. HOWEVER>>>>>>> when I started listening to the track in the car, (my NEW car, btw,...a silver Ford ZX5 which is the total s**t), I felt the warm certainty of inspiration start filling me with two more high concept ideas for the intro, choruses, and outro of the song. I am not at liberty to divulge the specifics, (non-disclosure arrangement with my Muse, you understand), but I am going to try it out soon. We will be mixing in the second week of June! Heck yeah!

On a totally different note, I took the fam to see Good Charlotte, New Found Glory, & MXPX for 13yr old Joe Ann's birthday last night. MXPX's drummer was incredible, and they did this stunt where the guitarist and bassist threw their instruments to each other during the song from the extreme ends of the stage, caught em, and continued to play. Impressive! I didn't enjoy NFG that much, but Good Charlotte proved that they really can sing well and put on a good show. Joe Ann was so excited that she peed her pants, (literally). Ah, fatherhood.

I almost forgot!!! Kevin Ryan made the scene at the Backtones' session to deliver materials for our trip to Austin on Tuesday. It was great just to have him in the control room while tracking a band project.

Finally, Robbie Parrish and I discussed drum sounds and setup for the Mark Needs a Chick tracking session on Wednesday. We listened to AFI's latest record for inspiration.

I'm headed out to one final birthday event for Joe Ann, then off to Brenham Tx, tonight to jam with a friend! I can't wait to play.

thejammin' love,
Dan

What to Do, What to Do.

Ah yes,... Wednesday--the day that I traditionally take off to attend to my personal stuff. Today it went great, but as usual, some work stuff creeps in......

Tonight I had dinner with Jeff Skiba, (he flipped for it, so Thanks, Jeff). We discussed many things. Actually, Jeff asked a few questions and sat back to see if he could pluck bits of desired information out of the unedited ramblings of yours truely. I think the black current tea went to my head. I do remember that we talked about doing another set of songs and that we might look into having Steve Palusek straw-boss a country cutting ensemble. I'm pretty sure that we will get Kevin Ryan to help out as well. And speaking of Kevin...

K.R. and I met with a young singer songwriter, Courtney Powers, to talk about a project. The meeting went well, and Courtney gave us a lot of raw material to sift through. But after the meeting, Kevin rounded up the engineers and staff at SugarHill and played them the video he shot at Abbey Road. The guys and gals were TRANSFIXED!!!! I thought Steve Christensen was going to have to change underwear when he saw John Brion's string overdubs in the famous Studio 2. We all got excited when Kevin played the tape of John micing his drum kits. We were feeling, "Not Worthy!!!!!!!"

On other news, the deal to do two songs with Pale seems to be firming up. The guys are working hard to put together the fundage, which I totally respect. Zach from Adamo has been off the page for a bit, but I still REALLY want to mix their project. June is looking a bit full, though.

Yesterday evening was spent at Mark Ellis' house doing the last pre-pro rehearsal for Mark Needs a Chick. We start tracking next week, and guess what,.....we had the crummiest rhythm section rehearsal I have had with them so far. Now that we have that out of the way, the tracking date itself should ROCK. I spent most of my time checking out the band's bass rig which is an Ampeg SVT3. I became curious because Steve Christensen rented an SVT Classic & SVT cabinet from Toby Davis for a Slovak Girl session last week and it sounded HUGE!!!!!!! I wanted to reassure myself that using the bands' amp would not make me regret not having Toby's rig. Hmmmm.

Time to call Giancarlo Cafearena about renting his Matchless Combo for the overdubs. Last time it sounded great on Mark's stuff, so GC, I'll be calling you.

OH MAN, 'GC' reminds me that I am taking my daughter, Joe Ann, to see Good Charlotte and Newfound Glory on Friday night for her birthday. I cannot wait to see how they sound live bcs the record is SUCH a 'producer's record'. I will report!

Finally, it is about time to go public with a cool new product that SugarHill is making available to clients. It's called the SugarHill Tape Vault. Go to www.sugarhillstudios.com and check it out!!!! It will be a totally unique way to publish music to the web.


The Big Day Off Love

I'm in a strange but wonderful place.

This whole week will be devoted to rehearsals, meetings, budget-writing, and studio scheduling. Today, I will be leading a capable team through some console maintanence and modification. There is a real zen state that I go into when I'm involved in equipment repair, (when there is no deadline). Much like mixing, it is a way that I order my universe and I find it calming and exciting at the same time. The 'figuring it out' stage really appeals to the engineer in me. It's really cool to be able to work in a creative field that has such a tech heavy basis.

By the way, I have one hard and fast rule regarding all studio equipment, and that is; "The Machine Never Wins"

thelove

Sublime Mixing!

I've had a day to recover, so now I can report on one of the best mix days
I've had in a long time.

The day started with Kevin Ryan coming over to the studio early to deliver
the song "Blue Day" to Craig Byrnes. Craig and I were both impressed with
the track, and we scheduled time to do vocals, instrumental overdubs, and
mix. Craig showed up with a couple of new tunes as well. Both Kevin and I
thought that they had some promise.

After Craig left, we got some lunch and came back to set up to mix Jeff
Skiba's songs, "Burn With My Fire", and "Don't Leave Me Hangin' On". Kevin
had done some backing vocals for the chorus of Don' Leave, so we imported
them first, and they sounded great. We noticed that his hi hat tracked had
slipped forward during file conversion, (yikes!), so we corrected that
and the groove instantly improved about one hundred percent. Kevin went
into the studio to play the Yamaha 7' grand while I set up the console and
aligned the tape machines for the mix. Just having Kevin there made the
vibe better than normal for a mix set up. I enjoyed his playing and I
thought about his experience at Abbey Road Studios just a few days ago.
I had a bonafide pilgrim in my midst!

My set up went quickly and I began mixing right on schedule at 2pm. I
started with "Burn....", and it became immediately apparent that Kevin's
parts were recorded to sound good on the front end. My mixing job was made
super easy due to the care he showed to the sounds of the performances he
recorded. The session turned out to be totally easy to blend and EQ. By
the time Jeff arrived, I was putting the finishing touches on the first mix.
We made a few tweaks, got Steve Christensen to listen with us, and we laid
it down to 1/4" and DAT. The 1/4" really sounded great!!

Kevin had to leave us before we started the last song, (something about his
dog, Peanut, being unsupervised--potential yukkiness avoided I hope). Then
we imported the files into the mix template and started on "Don't
Leave...:".

Now, by this time, I knew that the mix of "Burn, was superior, but I was
unprepared for the rock solid vibe of "Don't Leave.... This song is a
ballad, and Jeff had really sung it well. I just pulling the lead vocal up
louder and louder and it just kept sounding better!! I ended up spending
the most time of all on the last 4 bars of the song, cobbling an ending out
of Kevin's track. It turned out great, and the sound was fantastic. When
we finished, I was exhausted, but really happy, and Jeff was too.

When I woke up this morning, I put the CD in before I showered, and I ended
up listening through the songs 3 times, just enjoying the vibe. Rarely, if
ever, have I simply enjoyed a mix for the sound of the song on the day after
execution!

I got a chance to talk to Jeff today, and we both agreed that the work was
solid. Heck Yeah!!!

Today was spent in a long meeting with Sarah Sharp. It is my intention to
get her and Kevin Ryan working together on some of her new songs. Sarah and
I also strategized on getting a full length CD funded and recorded. I am
super pumped about starting work on more songs with Sarah, her band, and
possibly Kevin as well. I call Matthew Knowles at Music World in the hopes
that he might have some interest in our work. Fingers are crossed.

Finally, I got my budget to Pale. I spoke briefly with manager, Tim Plant,
and it sounds as if that project is going to be a go!!!!! Now, I wonder
what's up with Adamo???? Zack, if your reading, drop me an email re:
tracking progress.

I'm out! All this and I bought a cool new car today-- a Ford Focus ZX5.
It's the new, and much improved, producer-mobile. I'll call it "The Duke"
in honor of it's predecessor, (which was also known as the 'humility
mobile').

the big mixing love,
-Dan

Heck yeah, and Amen!!!

Today was a super productive day mixing AND tracking. First off, I got to the studio early to import Kevin Ryan�s �sweetener� tracks back into the master session file for Melanie Covington�s song, �Thinking of You�. The tracks �rebonded� seamlessly with my session. Next came my ritual of setting the studio up to mix. Usually I like to get all my outboard processors plugged in and routed, do the audio alignment on the tape deck and DAT machine, and turn off the overhead lights and turn on the lamps. So far, so good. I started to edit first, because I knew that the song was too busy, (it was 64 tracks).

By lunch time I had the beginnings of the form down and started to mix for balances. After a quick lunch, (where I noticed that I was already withdrawing from the human world), I got back into to mixing and before I knew it, I had to take a break to do a quick tracking session on Jeff Skiba�s �Burn With My Fire�.

We had one more part to cut, which was a fiddle part, which was played quite well by Rodgers Cochran. We set up, got into the part, and an hour later, we had a rough CD and were finished with the song. Jeff and I were both pleased, and Rodgers, your fiddle sounded SWEET! So by 6:30 I was back into Melanie�s song without a hitch.

Normally, I wouldn�t dream of stopping a mixing date to track, especially on another project, but this was just so easy, mostly because both projects have been super pro, and both Melanie, and Jeff, have given me tons of room to work things my way. I could not have been working with two cooler people than I did today.

Time passed very quickly, and by 10pm, Melanie and I were dancing in the control room while the final pass was made to the 1/4� analog deck. Allen Corneau at Essential Sound will be mastering the song, and I can�t wait to hear what he does with this.

the big long day love

It�s a lonely night at the studio. I was supposed to be cutting vocals with Melanie Covington, but alas, the session cancelled due to her having a conflicting gig. SO. Here�s an opportunity to prepare for next week.

I�m going to do some pre mixing on Melanie�s song, �Thinking of You�. We are scheduled to mix on Tuesday. Kevin Ryan is doing some keyboard parts on the song, and he came by to pick up the Protools files just a few minutes ago. (His wife, Kristen, was with him, and she got the 50 cent tour). I am going to do a new guitar part on the song as well.

On Thursday, I will be mixing Jeff Skiba�s songs, so I think I�ll finish the editing on them as well. As a last minute addition, Kevin is putting some backing vocals on �Don�t Leave Me Hangin� On�.


Other stuff:

I need to write a budget for Craig Byrnes� project, and for Pale�s project. Now, truth be told, I don�t really enjoy sitting down to bust out a project budget, BUT it is a great opportunity to check my thinking about the mechanics of making the music happen.

Enough procrastination!
(thelove)

Oh. My. God.
When last I wrote, I was about to head down to Studio A to continue the song "Talk to Me" with the Southern Backtones. I was very interested in how this session would progress because our original tracking date was fraught with indecision. As you may have read, that session yielded some great tracks, they just came hard. Our session on Sunday night was the mirror image of our previous efforts in regards to the effort to output ratio (now positive). We worked fast--intuitively letting the song suggest each part, and we got KILLER material.

To wit:

We started the night with the main vocal, which was interesting in that we only had drums, bass, and two backwards guitars tracked. We wanted the vocal to be the centerpiece of the song, and with the direction we were headed, I wanted the other melodic and rhythmic elements to follow the vocal performance. This was a great idea, but we found that we needed to cut a piano part to serve as a melodic guide because there just wasn't enough 'song' yet for Hank to sing to. Mike jumped on the grand and I cut a super compressed, mono piano track which sounded great, (including the massive number of piano bench squeeks from Mike's nervous fidgeting). After that, we cut a killer vocal with only a couple of punches. The vocal was so compressed that we could hear Mike's stomach growl at the beginning of the track at about -10db!!!!

After the vocal, we did one of the coolest things I have ever heard. First, John Griffin and I had pretty much decided that we wanted to track an electric guitar part with the amp outside the studio. We set up his amp on the side of the building and I miked it from about 25 feet away so we would get some passing traffic noise in the track as a sort of random element. This was all good, but the neighborhood was unusually quiet, so I decided to 'high concept' the traffic idea. I got Jason McKee (SugarHill's Operations Manager), to engineer the track, while John played his part. During this time Hank stood right outside the studio door. At the right point in the song, Hank waved at me and I rode my BMW motorcycle past the building, making as much noise as possible. We came inside to listen, AND IT SOUNDED GREAT!!! This track was one of the most organic sounding 'one pass' tracks I have ever heard. We ended the night with Hank doing a very effected intro and lead guitar part. After a quick rough mix we called it a night. Everyone who has heard the track has reacted to the magic (in a positive way)!

Equally cool was my Tuesday in the SugarHill's Studio B. Jeff Skiba came in to do vocals on "Don't Leave Me Hanging On". Now Jeff told me that he felt stopped up which was no suprise--I have NEVER had a singer show up and tell me, "I feel great and I can breathe like a motherf***er, ....Let's record!", Naw folks, it just never works that way. Jeff sounded OK while he was talking so I just got him to drink some hot beverage and we started to cut the track. If anything, his being stuffy actually helped out. I got a warm resonate vocal from him using a Neumann KM86 mic through a John Hardy MP-1 mic pre. I compressed to taste, and really just sat back. Jeff delivered way above what I thought him capable of. He sang the song in a more 'singerly fashion' than in our pre production, and really gave a generous performance. I have worked further on his vocal edits, and we have a great track. I'll be mixing his songs next Thursday, and they are going to come out great I know.

Tuesday was a very busy day in that I spent the late afternoon rehearsing Mark Needs A Chick out at Mark Ellis' house. We worked on two very ambitious songs, "Carpe Diem" and "Used". "Used" is simply great songcraft and songwriting. The arrangement is dense, but everything has it's place, and Mark and I will be layering a lot of vocals and guitars. I can hear it in my head already. "Carpe" is not quite as easy a shot in that I still have some questions about the layering of elements and how they will fit, BUT, the song is totally up to MNAC latests standards and it, (the song, of course), will tell us what it needs as we go. I have to give props to their new bass player, Andrew. He is a great team player and his playing is top drawer. I think he has the control of his tone to be a very good bassist in the studio.

From this rehearsal, I went to the Woodlands, (a 30 mile trip), to rehearse the band Pale. (This is still Tuesday, remember!....I'm still tired!). Man, this band is really phenomenal. Turns out Steve, the bass player used to play in Secret Sunday when I recorded them in 1998. He was good then, but is very very good now. British Brian sings backups and plays keys and guitars on the songs we are cutting. Brian dresses like a 'Mod' and liked my old motorcycle. Did I mention what a great judge of motorcycles he is? Rob plays lead guitar and he has a great melodic sense along with a killer ear for tone and time. Calvin sings, writes the songs and plays great guitar himself. Finally, Travis plays drums. Travis is not a hard hitter, which suprised me. His tone and time are super-pro and I cannot wait to cut him. I'm going to draw up a budget to produce and record the two songs we rehearsed. I sure wish we were on a label budget for this one.

As I rode the bike 25 miles back home, I thought what a cool day it had been and how lucky and honored I am to be able to work on so much great music all in one day.

Tomorrow I get to work with Kevin Ryan at his home on a whole bunch of stuff. We are going to review his pictures and video from his week at Abbey Road. I can hardly wait.!!!

(the love)